“Bu büyük bir hikâye:” J. M. Synge’in The Playboy of the Western World oyununu ulusötesi alegorisi olarak okumak

Öz

Fredric Jameson tarafından ortaya atılan “ulusal alegori” kavramı özellikle postkolonyal çalışmalarda önemli düzeyde eleştirel tartışmaya konu olmuştur. Bu kavramla ilgili tartışmalar çoğunlukla Jameson’ın “tüm” üçüncü dünya edebi metinlerinin kaçınılmaz biçimde “ulusal alegori” sınıfına dâhil olduğu şeklindeki görüşü üzerine odaklanır. Bu bağlamda “ulus,” alegorik yankılarla bezenmiş metinlerin bilhassa ulus devlete göndermede bulunarak geliştiği temel kavramsal çerçeveyi ortaya koyar. Jameson’ın yaklaşımı sanat eserlerinin ardındaki dolaylı siyasal boyutu belirten “siyasal bilinçdışı” kavramıyla birlikte düşünüldüğünde daha da anlam kazanır. Burada Jameson sanat eserlerinin bilinçdışı düzeyde hissedilen tarihi ve ekonomik gerçeklerin ürettiği koşulların birer ürünü olduğunu öne sürer. J. M. Synge’in The Playboy of the Western World oyunu bu bakımdan Jameson izleğinde bir okuma yapma olanağı sunar; zira İrlandalıların İngiliz hâkimiyetinden bağımsızlık kazanma çabaları oyunun dramatik dünyasına baba-oğul arasındaki Odipal bir gerginlik biçiminde aktarılır. Bununla birlikte, oyun net sınırları olan bir milliyet anlayışını yeniden üretmekten kaçındığı için basite indirgenmiş bir ulusal alegoriyi içermez. Bu çalışma, Synge’in radikal milliyetçi ideolojilerin ötesine geçen bir “ulusötesi” duruma seslendiğini ve arka plandaki dolaylı anlatının göçebe bir “öteyi” tahayyül etme çağrısıyla yeni bir ulus yaklaşımını benimseyen “ulusötesi bir alegori” ortaya koyduğunu iddia eder.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• ulusötesi alegorisi
• Jameson
• Synge
• Playboy of the Western World
• göçebelik

“That’s a grand story:” Reading J. M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World as a postnational allegory

Abstract

The concept of “national allegory” formulated in Fredric Jameson’s work on the third-world literatures has been the subject of much critical debate, especially in the context of postcolonial studies. The dispute surrounding the term is closely tied to Jameson’s controversial suggestions such as the view that “all” third-world literary texts inevitably fall into the category of “national allegory”. The “nation” in this sense provides the main conceptual framework out of which literary texts imbued with “allegorical resonances” develop by specifically addressing the nation state. Jameson’s formulation acquires further significance when it is reciprocally held with his concept of the “political unconscious”, which refers to the implicit political aspect behind creative works. Jameson suggests that artistic works are the products of unconsciously felt political and cultural conditions laid out by latent historical and economic realities. J.M Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World lends itself to a Jamesonian reading in that the Irish efforts to achieve independence from British rule are transmuted into the dramatic world of the play in the form of an Oedipal tension between a father and a son. However, the play does not put forward a simplistic allegory of the nation since the text itself avoids reproducing a picture of a clear-cut nationhood. This essay argues that Synge’s play addresses a “postnational” condition transcending the militant nationalist ideologies and produces a “postnational allegory” in which the suggestive background points at a new rationale for defining the nation with a call for imagining a nomadic “beyond”.

Keywords

• postnational allegory
• Jameson
• Synge
• The Playboy of the Western World
• nomadic

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